ts he had made in
reference to America. He would commence with the Andover story about
cutting throats. The truth of the matter was this. A student in the
Theological Seminary of the name of A. F. Kaufman, Jr., charged him,
George Thompson, with having said, in a private conversation, that
every slave-holder ought to have his throat cut, and that if the
abolitionists preached what they ought to preach, they would tell
every slave to cut his master's throat. Mr. Kaufman was from Virginia,
the son of a slave-holder, and heir to slave property. The story was
first circulated in Andover, and was afterwards published in the
New-York Commercial Advertiser, in a communication dated from the
Saratoga Springs. In reply to the printed version, I (said Mr. T.)
printed a letter denying the charge in the most solemn manner, and
referring to my numerous public addresses, and innumerable private
conversations, in proof of the perfectly pacific character of my
views. Then came forth a long statement from Mr. Kaufman, with a
certificate to his veracity and general good character, signed by
professors Woods, Stuart, and Emerson, of Andover. Here the matter
must have rested--Mr. Kaufman's charge on one side, and my denial on
the other--had the conversation been strictly private; but,
fortunately for me, there were witnesses of every word; and this
brings me to notice other circumstances connected with the affair,
constituting a most complete contradiction of the charge. I was
staying at the time under the roof of the Rev. Shipley W. Willson, the
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Andover, and when I had
the conversation with Mr. Kaufman, in which the language imputed to me
is alleged to have been uttered, there were present, besides
ourselves, my host the Rev. S. W. Willson; the Rev. Amos A. Phelps,
congregational clergyman, and one of the agents of the American
Anti-Slavery Society; the Rev. La Roy Sunderland Methodist Episcopal
clergyman, and at present the editor of Zion's Watchman, New-York; and
the Rev. Jarvis Gregg, now a Professor in Western Reserve College,
Ohio. In consequence of the use made of the statement put forth by Mr.
Kaufman, I wrote to Professor Gregg, and Mr. Phelps, requesting them
to give their version of the conversation in writing; and their
letters in reply, which, together with one written without
solicitation by Mr. Sunderland, have been published. They not only
flatly contradict the account given by